Kim Myung-sung (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

: 김명성) (born April 8, 1988) is a South Korean

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. He bats and throws

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

. Kim was selected fifth overall by the

Lotte Giants The Lotte Giants ( ko, 롯데 자이언츠) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Busan. They are a member of the KBO League. The Lotte Giants are owned by Lotte Corporation, which also owns the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Pr ...

in the 2011 KBO Draft.

Amateur career

Kim was born in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

, and completed his mediocre high school career at Jangchung High School in

, where his main position was an infielder. Kim went undrafted in the 2007 KBO Draft, and enrolled at

Chung-Ang University Chung-Ang University (CAU; ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is widely regarded as one of the best universities in South Korea. The university operates two campuses: main campus located in Dongjak District, Seoul, and ...

to continue his baseball career. Kim began his collegiate career as a

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

in , but the freshman infielder, who had a weak bat but a strong arm, converted from a position player to a pitcher. Kim broke out in the season with a 5–2 record and a 2.71 ERA, appearing in 16 games as a starting pitcher. In July, he was called up to the

South Korean national baseball team The South Korean national baseball team ( ko, 대한민국 야구 국가대표팀) is the national baseball team of South Korea. It won the Baseball World Cup in 1982, and participated in the Summer Olympic Games of 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2000. ...

for the 2009 Asian Baseball Championship held in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...

, Japan. In the championship, Kim made only one appearance for the team, tossing 0.1 innings of relief against

Team Japan Team Japan is a professional wrestling group that was brought together as a part of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's World X Cup Tournament. History 2004 Team Japan started as six-man team as team captain Nosawa from All Japan Pro Wrestling tea ...

. Kim had another strong season in , posting a record of 6–0 and an ERA of 1.72 and allowing only one home run in 68 innings pitched. In July 2010, Kim was called up to play for Korea in the Korea-USA Baseball Championship Series. He started in Game 2 of the series and hurled 5.1 innings of two-run ball with 5 strikeouts against

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

. On September 6, Kim was selected as the only amateur player of the final 24 members for the 2010 Asian Games in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, China. Kim tossed 2.1 shutout innings in South Korea's 17-0 win over

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

in the group round of the baseball tournament at the Asian Games, allowing only one hit and racking up three strikeouts.

Notable international careers

References

External links

* Korea Baseball Organization career statistics a
Koreabaseball.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Myung-sung Lotte Giants players Doosan Bears players South Korean baseball players Baseball players from Seoul 1988 births Living people Asian Games medalists in baseball Baseball players at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games